Self Portrait in Mirror

Kate Sammons was born in Seoul, Korea, naturalized as a US citizen one year later and raised in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. In grade school she discovered an enjoyment for arts and crafts activites that developed later into a sympathy for art. In 2002 she graduated from the University of Ilinois with a BFA in painting before continuing on to study at several studios to master the craft. Sammons started a professional career in 2007, going on to exhibit work in galleries and museums around the country including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Butler Institute of American Art. Her paintings have been featured in magazines such as Fine Art Connoisseur, The Artist’s Magazine and American Art Collector, among others. With a blend of representation and imagination, her work is described to capture the emotion of her figures and scenes at the moment they are painted. Among the varied subjects she paints, she says the portraits of her family and friends remain her favorites. Sammons moved to Los Angeles in 2010 where she taught at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art. Since then Kate’s art has appeared locally at events like the annual LA Art Show and joined the California Art Club as a signature artist member with exhibitions at the Pasadena Museum of Art, the USC Fisher Museum and the Autry Museum. She regularly shows new work with three galleries across the US along with a number of group exhibitions every year, as well as keeping affiliations with the national organization for traditional portraiture, the Portrait Society of America and her alumni group, the Ani Academy Waichulis.